sneaky reading

Lately I have been in the mood to do two things, read and crochet.  Unfortunately, you can't do those two things at once...or can you?  Thanks to Audible, I have been able to for the last couple of days, in little snippets of time when I can focus at least 85% of my attention on what I'm doing, and it has been very, very nice.  I am still distracted quite a bit, since anywhere that Riggs is seems to be the place to be for Tutka as well.  

see what I mean?

Riggs is like, "What is this big hairy thing doing on my blanket?"

Despite the interruptions and distractions, I have managed to "read" Simplicity Parenting:  Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids, by Kim John Payne.  I have to tell you, this is an amazing book.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has kids (of any age) or plans on having kids at some point in the near future.

I've kept a notebook nearby as I'm listening, because there have been many sentences and thoughts that especially stood out to me that I wanted to write down and remember.  I wanted to share them on my blog, not only so that readers can enjoy them and maybe be inspired to read (or listen to) the book, but also so that I have them recorded somewhere to help me remember the principles or main ideas of the book.  I'll warn you know they are somewhat random, and are just ideas that I found interesting, and I am in no way suggesting they represent the perfect way to raise children.  So anyway, here you go:

"You can see what a family holds dear from the pattern of their every day lives."

"Will our love and kindness give them [our children] the grace they need to grow?"

"...the sanctity of childhood had been breached, adult life was flooding in unchecked.  Privy to their parents fears, drives, ambitions and the very fast pace of their lives, the children were busy trying to construct their own boundaries, their own level of safety..."

"Our society, with its pressures of too much, is waging an undeclared war on childhood..."

"ADD, or attention deficit disorder, in my opinion should be called API, attention priority issue..."

"Americans consume 80% of the worlds Ritalin..."

"Imagine your home as a place where time passes a little slower..."

"When your child seems to deserve affection least is when they need it most."

The book gives you so much to think about and digest, and I think it is addressing something we all know, deep inside, that we need to be watchful of in our own lives, at least I know that I do.  Dr. Payne used the analogy of the frog in 'frying pan':  Research has been done that has proven that if a live frog is dumped into a pot of boiling hot water, it will try very hard to jump out.  But if it is put into a pot of room temperature water, and then heated slowly to a boiling point, it will not notice and therefore not try to escape the water until it is too late.  Although morbid, this really stood out to me as the course our Society could be on.  As we add more and more and more and more to our plates, it sometimes seems that we will not stop until it is too late and we have consumed everything and destroyed the things in this life that really matter.  Not only will simplifying our lives help our children to be "calmer, happier, and more secure", but it will put much less strain on the environment, which we are already pushing to its limits.  From a Biblical perspective, God gave us dominion over the earth not to destroy it, but to care for it.  "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it" Genesis 2:15 ESV.

If you have read this book, give me your thoughts...if not, what do you think of the little bits I have included here?  Is it something you would be interested in reading?  Please consider it, I have enjoyed it and will definitely read it again in the future.